The Panama Canal: Its History & Its Legacy

The Panama Canal: Its History & Its Legacy Throughout world history, numerous modes of transportation were utilized in order for people to get from one place to another. For water transportation, people had different options to get from one place to another. For short distances, they could use boats or canoes. In contrast, if someone had to travel a long ways to get to their destination, the definitive choice would be to utilize ships. Ever since ships were invented, explorers from all over the world have sailed the open seas in the hopes of discovering new places and possibly bringing something valuable back to their home land. For the most part, there weren’t any major issues that hindered the water exploration process. There were some difficulties, however, when it came to crossing from one body of water to the next in certain parts of the world. It is because of this dilemma that canals were built at key intersections of water highways. Some notable canals that have been constructed throughout history include the Suez Canal (connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea at Egypt) in 1869 and the Kiel Canal (linking the Baltic Sea and the North Sea at Germany) in 1895. However, there is one canal that bears the most significance of them all and has saved more time, money, and effort for ocean-going vessels than the other individual canals. This canal is the Panama Canal and based on the description in the previous sentence, it has rightfully earned the nickname of being the “Eighth Wonder of the World.”[6] The origins of the Panama Canal date back to the 16th century when Spanish explorer Vasco Nuñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and observed that the only thing blocking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans was a thin strip of land. He returned to Spain and alerted King Charles I, who issued a decree in 1534 to construct some sort of channel across the isthmus which would lead from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The king of Spain